Second Chance
by threehoursofsleep
Summary: She wished she could die, Inuyasha had betrayed her and she was still alive when she should be dead. How can two lovers return to each other when betrayal separated them? AU takes place 50 years ago InuKik
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Inuyasha or its characters. Hope you like!

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Chapter One

"Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous and it pricks like a thorn."

-Romeo & Juliet

She had been certain she would die

_Please Kami-sama…Just let me die…I am no longer fit to service you because of this…of this pain…_

But Kami had no time to pay attention to his ever faithful, ever watchful, servant. Not now, nor ever. She supposed it was fair…After all she had given her heart to someone else. She was a cheater. She had betrayed the village and her god, her powers and naturally she was betrayed.

Yes. She had been betrayed. And now she could barely breathe, her eyes not wanting to open but her shoulder stung as her breathing deepened, bringing her more to the surface of consciousness and accepting that she was in fact alive.

"Oneesama!" the soft voice came out with relief, with fear, with love. She felt the small hand smooth back her hair out of her eyes as if not even meaning to. She must have been taking care of her the entire time…

"How long have I been asleep?" the words rang false in her ears because such a mundane question didn't belong here, now.

"Almost a day," Kaede responded softly, her words were thick.

Kikyou looked up at her, "Oh Kaede…" she said softly. There were tears in her sister's eyes. Her hair was a wayward mess, blood on her kimono which she hadn't even bothered to wash out. Dirt was smudged on her knees. The younger girl stared down at her face, as if it was the only thing holding her to the world.

Kikyou started to reach tenderly for her face, but a lance of pain went through her shoulder, making her stop. "I'm so sorry," she said apologetically to her younger sister.

_I'm so sorry I made this terrible mistake…I'm so sorry that I nearly left you alone…because of a silly whim._

Kaede leaned forward, delicately kissing her forehead, careful not to hurt her. "I'm so happy you're okay…" she said quietly.

Kikyou wondered if she was happy. It was a selfish passing thought…

The priestess had never thought highly of herself. It was only her status as priestess that gave her any hope. She didn't feel human. She was given deference and treated with respect, she was also seen as the pillar of their society and so no one had ever asked is she was okay…

No one had ever rescued her…She had never laid down her head…And Inuyasha had brought her that reprieve.

She felt like she knew him. She had felt something so real…She had felt light headed around him, enough to make her smile. It was dizzying and she liked being swept off her feet for once. But this time instead of being swept up the ground had dropped out from underneath of her.

"Kaede, have you checked on Onigumo?" she had whispered quietly that evening.

Kaede nodded. "Yes…a few minutes before you woke up…I think the cave caught fire…He's not there."

Kikyou's eyes widened in shock, then they looked sadly at the ceiling. "More unfortunate circumstances…" There was a long silence and Kaede knew what she would say next and felt her heart flutter knowing how much it would hurt her older sister.

It did. Her sister swallowed and finally spoke in a voice far too nonchalant for the situation, "And the hanyou?"

Kaede looked down at her blanket. "He's still pinned to the tree…"

The miko frowned in response, "I...thought I used a purifying arrow instead of a sealing arrow…" She sighed. "I suppose I will have to attend to that later."

And her sister could see the pain in those dark eyes that stared out the door in the direction of the sacred tree.

* * *

(Looking for a beta if anyone wants to help out.)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: these aren't mine. I've just decided they needed some happy!ending.

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Chapter 2

For no reason in particular, when Kikyou woke up from her third day of rest, she thought of her mother and father when they were alive, as well as her older brother. Her brother had been claimed by war long before she had been alive, her parents had been nearly ancient by feudal era reckoning, in their late forties when they had died.

She remembered her mother running her hands through her hair, which had been an experience nearing nirvana for her, plaiting it and interspersing her namesake flower within the folds of her hair. Kikyou had felt truly beautiful at the time, her mother's belly swollen with pregnancy, soft and round, working out in the rice fields, the mud squishing pleasantly between her toes, her life the happiest it had ever been.

Kikyou had been selfish. So selfish back then. She had been a selfish fool. She'd been around eight when Kaede had been born. She remembered the indignation, the busy stares, her father's neglect as he hurried to help her mother with the baby. She had wanted things to go back to the way they had been then. Missing her old way of life, devoid of the simple pleasures she had relished then, a slow dislike had begun to creep into her way of thinking. Kaede didn't belong in her life, it was her family, it was her home, her family, HERS, why couldn't that little crying mass just leave?

Things had changed horrifically, the way they had changed now, when she valued herself over others. Kaede had been four, toddling behind her sister, absolutely devoted to the girl who mostly disliked Kaede's existence, crying her name when she skinned her knee, singing songs loudly in the quiet, generally being a nuisance to Kikyou. They were taking a break from working on the field, they had slipped away from the older ones, and plus, Kaede had to pee. That was Kikyou's excuse at least. Her younger sister could barely hold the pretense.

"Oneesama! What's this one? Mama likes this one." A loud huffing sound as she inhaled the scent. "Mmmmm oneesama, you should smell this, it smells good!"

"Oneesama oneesama oneesama…" Kikyou mumbled under her breath. "Ne, Kaede, come here!"

The little one grinned, dropping the herbs from her hands and cheerily coming over. "Haaaaii!"

The older girl smiled in return, a more formal beauty to her, hair long and straight, unbound and hanging around her pale pink yukata, her eyes dark and deep, but lacking in the mystery it would gain as she grew.

"Do you see that?" She kneeled down to Kaede's height, pointing to the dark base of a tree, where it parted and dipped down, forming an opening, shrouded in dust and dirt and leaves.

Kaede nodded gravely. "Hai."

"I thought I saw something sparkling in there, like some sort of jewel…Maybe some tenshi has dropped down and is hiding in there…"

The older sister watched as Kaede's mouth opened into a perfect "o" and she started to walk over.

She watched her hunch over and climb under. Kikyou, meanwhile, had taken firm grip of a branch over her head and swung upwards so that her foot hooked against a knot on the rough trunk. Carefully she clambered up, revealing more leg than she probably should have and propped herself up on the branches, staring out at the sky and the treetops.

It was cooler up here and a breeze filtered through the branches, making a soft noise which made Kikyou's pulse calm. "Oneesamaaaa…I don't see anything. It's really dark down here…and I think I felt a bug.."

"Are you sure? I saw sparkling…I guess the tenshi will be alone in there," Kikyou frowned, tilting her head and making a mock voice of lament for the poor tenshi.

"But!" Kaede's voice had risen in distress. "I can't see a tenshi down here! I looked everywhere!"

Leaning more lazily against the trunk, Kikyou's mouth twitched into a smirk as she waited for dramatic effect. "Hmmm…If it's not a tenshi…it must be a youkai's glittering teeth that I saw!"

A scream erupted from the base of the tree trunk and she could hear Kaede scuffling out, crying and scrambling against the rocks. "Oneesama help me! I think it touched me-I-"

That was when Kikyou heard something of more importance. "Did you hear that?" She interrupted Kaede's crying.

"Hm?" Kaede looked up, brown eyes wide and still slightly rimmed with tears.

Kikyou slid down the base. She perked up. "Mama is calling us. Are you done going pee?"

"I never had to go-"

"Come on, let's go," she started running in the direction of her mother, ignoring Kaede's cry. She'd start running in a second and everything would be fine.

"Kikyou-chaaaan! Kaede-chaaaan!"

She'd been able to see her mother's outline when she'd died. The sensation would have been worse if her legs hadn't moved her away on instinct. She would have died too. She remembered picking up Kaede and running as fast as she could back to the tree with the tenshi in the roots. Mud had stained her pink yukata and her knees were scraped.

Kaede had been bawling until Kikyou slapped her into silence. Her breath halting as she stared out of the entrance, backed against the wall, her sister pressed even further behind her. The damp smell of tree and dirt was penetrated by another smell. Kaede had wet herself, the warm feeling against her back disgusting, but her desire to live greater.

Those seconds had been the longest in her entire life.

And her father and mother had not come to get her. A priest had come instead. He dispelled the demons and found the two girls shivering in the night.

"So you are their daughters, we'd thought you'd been eaten. Well it's good to see you survived," He held out his hand.

He took the two of them with him to a shrine. There Kikyou had learned to love her sister, and had been taught the meaning of sacrifice, of messages, of purity, of humanity. And until Inuyasha, she had lived her life in quiet dignity.

And then she was selfish again. This time, the value of Kaede was shown. She'd been harmed by her own older sister, lost her eye. And her village, her responsibility, had nearly been shirked for a hunch. For selfishness.

This was a sign from Kami. She must value life, or lose all that is truly precious to her. The old miko had told her that she should never have felt the jealousy she had felt of Kaede. Kami had taken away her mother and father in order to show her the importance of all members, to show her that her family belonged to Kami. Not her.

And Kikyou had become ashamed of her selfishness, and vowed to never think of herself as an owner again.

"You're awake…" The smile glowed on Kaede's face. She knelt down by her side with a fresh pail of water.

"Have you been taking care of me all this time…?" Kikyou's head felt heavy.

"Not just me, the villagers helped as well, and…*insert name*." She looked away at the mention of the name, looking almost sheepish.

Kikyou's eyes widened, "Eh?"

"He came to visit…"

"Why? I'm doing well on my own, we don't need his help any longer. That vexing man…"

"Well, I didn't want to interfere…but I wrote him about…" Her head sunk down as her voice slowly lost volume. "Inuyasha-sama…"

Kikyou's mouth fell open and then she glanced away. "I see…"

"I suppose it was necessary considering what a fool I have been."

The silence was awkward, in the dim light of the room. Outside she could hear the gravel crunch as someone approached. Oh great. Here he came now.

"Kikyou-sama? Are you awake? Are you decent?" Not waiting for an answer, the man with the deep voice came in. Kikyou looked up tiredly as he looked down at her, the purple of his robes shining against the light outside. He let the screen fall closed behind him.

"My dear, I believe you've grown since I last saw you," he looked her over, taking into appreciation quite obviously her breasts, which luckily were wrapped but it was nonetheless awkward. Kaede looked away, embarrassed.

"And you appear to still be a monk. How interesting," the woman returned coolly.

"Yes, and a monk of quite some stature, if you've heard the stories…However I came to see you, Kikyou-sama," his gaze turned more serious, his attractive face looking over her carefully. The miko's heart clenched, and she avoided his gaze.

"It's my fault…I was foolish enough to believe that a hanyou…was like me and wanted to be…" with me, she wanted to finish her sentence, her wounds stung more than they had before, as if remembering the strike that had made them.

"I offered to turn him human," she laughed bitterly. She could feel Kaede's stare on her. "But when I'm well again, I won't just seal him. I will end his life for him the way he tried to for me." It was a promise to herself. She thought she felt his golden eyes on her, soft and molten. What a joke. Tsubaki would laugh herself out of town. Her demand for the Shikon no Tama would be taken much more seriously this time.

"Leave it be. Don't let bitterness fill you," warm, bare, hands gripped her shoulders. "He's sealed now. There's nothing left for you to do."

"I haven't finished my duty!" Kikyou snapped, and the jewel throbbed from it's podium beside her. Her eyes darted to it. She hadn't realized it was there.

"I will stay here to watch the village, no doubt there will be more attacks while you are injured," *insert name* pulled his hands away. "Right now your arrow is acting as protection for him. You won't be able to kill him without taking out the seal."

Both sisters' eyes widened.

"The seal…is protection as well?" That would have taken more energy than just blowing him to pieces. Why hadn't she just killed him? That type of arrow takes more control and precision.

"Leaves don't fall on him, noone can touch him; it's definitely protecting him somehow."

The day came shrieking to an end. It ran down like ink across rice paper and smelt of must and dirt of the village. The sun was devoured by the horizon, but it was constantly dark in the hut. She could think of nothing else. Passed out on the floor, Kaede snored softly, her chest rising and falling gently.

Kikyou felt her bones creak against each other as she slowly got to her feet. Clutching her side, she stood in the dark, listening for a change in breathing. Nothing came. Kaede was still out. She had to see if it was true. Many seals could bear the elements, but a seal underwater would not protect the object, leaves would pile up and had to be brushed away, dirt would be caked onto it if left uncared for. Inuyasha's was of a different level. Something was definitely off about all this. Gripping her bow, and adjusting her sleeves so they covered her, Kikyou slipped out of the hut, screen shuffling shut behind her. The air was much cooler, and the miko looked around for anyone who may be looking out. Candles were out around the village, the stars mashed into the dark fabric of the sky against the dim mud huts of stone and straw. No one was out.

She hobbled out across the cobbled ground, heading carefully towards where Inuyasha would be bound. Her side squeezed uncomfortably, and her breath came in heavy pants. Her feet stung, the rocks digging into her bare feet, she hadn't put shoes on, afraid Kaede would wake up. The trees opened up, revealing just barely red and white against the sacred tree.

Suddenly she could hear the sound of feet against the cobbled stone, and see a dim light. Sinking quickly under the edge of the cobbled outcropping, Kikyou felt like a child again, her heart pounded and she nearly laughed.

From the sound of it, it was Miyatsu. He stood for a long moment above where she was hidden. He must have been looking at Inuyasha, like Kikyou was. But it was probably more like a tourist would, and less with personal intensity. He had promised to watch the village for her after all. She hoped he wasn't going to the hut to check on her and Kaede. Finally his feet headed away and Kikyou slowly moved from the ledge to where Inuyasha was. He looked peaceful.

Sleeping deceitfully, the wind pulling at his hair slightly, looking so innocent she could cry. She stooped down, forgetting her pain, and picked up a leaf, holding it between her fingers. As she approached, her heart pounded. He was right there. Thinking about him, talking about him, even dreaming about him was not the same as having him right there in front of her.

She climbed up a large root leading up to him, holding out the leaf to drop onto his face, to see if it would deflect.

"Ah!"

The leaf fell from her fingers, her wrists held in a vice-like grip, golden eyes blazing out at her.

"Inuyasha!" the name came out more air than voice.

"Kikyou, you bitch. Come to finish the job?" He smirked.

She'd lost her voice. Where the hell had her strength gone? She could barely hear him past her pounding heart.

"You don't look like you're in any condition to fight me. Even while I'm skewered to this tree." That wasn't concern. He had done this to her…and now…

"Don't toy with me," she tore her hands away from him, taking a step back.

"I'm not the one toying, Kikyou, you're the one who hasn't killed me from day one. You're like a cat playing with its food. It makes me sick," he bared his fangs at her.

"Hmph. You're right. I made a mistake leaving you alive. But I won't be making that mistake again," the miko looked at him evenly, she turned away, walking back down the large root to the ground.

"Kikyou! Why did you go to all the trouble of lying? Why didn't you just kill me then!" the sudden pain in his voice was so raw that the miko was temporarily taken aback. But then her shoulder happened to twinge at the right time.

She spun around, fury radiating in her voice. "I said stop toying with me!" An angry hand reached up, pulling down her sleeve and with one pained movement she ripped off the bandage on her shoulder from where it had been lovingly placed. She gripped her shoulder, feeling the scabbed places, rough under her fingers and the wet, unhealed, part under her palm. She held it up for him to look at, red gleaming on her hand.

"I won't forget, you bastard! You will never fool me again. You will die by my hands alone!"

The hanyou was quiet as the miko turned, hobbling away. He thought he could hear her crying as she left, but he wasn't sure.

"Kikyou…how were you injured?" he whispered into the night. No answer came.

* * *

"Kikyou-sama!"

She was a panting angry mess, her hair in disarray, her bandage askew and at the outcry of the monk she very nearly turned around and left again. The fire had been stoked into life and her younger sister and he both had jumped up when she came in.

"Oneesama! What happened to you?" Kaede rushed forward to tend to the wounds but Kikyou bat her away in irritation, ignoring the hurt look on her face to speak to Miyatsu.

"We must kill him tonight!"

Both stopped to stare at her.

"Oneesama?"

"Inuyasha. He must die tonight. I will release the seal. You can kill him, I-" she choked back a sob and turned away, completely silent. She became very still, and her voice came out eerily calm.

"Hmph. I thought that he would be above lying like this. When he betrayed me in the clearing he was so confident. It must be his way of begging, how pathetic," she looked over at them, they were frozen as if to keep this strange new Kikyou from flying into attack mode. "I'm sorry for worrying you…" She looked down, the picture of humility.

"Daijobu ka Oneesama?" Kaede slowly inched forward, and this time Kikyou let her tend to her bandages.

"Daijobu…" This close, her younger sister could see the strange stiffness in Kikyou, the muscles in her arms straining for whatever reason, her awkward positioning, and the forced look of her expression. "Arigatou…Kaede…"

"You're my sister…it's nothing," Kaede felt the tenseness lessen in her older sister as she lead her back to bed. "Daijobu Kikyou-oneesama…Everything will be alright."

Kikyou lay back on her mat, Kaede patting her back gently until she fell asleep.

Miyatsu watched the exchange in silence, speaking up only when she was asleep. "It seems like everything you told me was true…But I think she may have spoken with him just now."

The younger sister looked up and shock, "Spoken with him?" She glanced over at Kikyou's sleeping form. "But what is there to say…?"

"She wants him dead, but she's not doing this calmly…What could he be lying about?"

"I don't know…"

"Perhaps we can ask him tomorrow, or maybe you should, after all, you know the hanyou, not me," the monk smiled.

"You want me to speak to the hanyou who mutilated my sister and has obviously driven her insane?" Kaede summarized, glaring at the much older man.

"Yes, if you want to help your sister that is," the monk smiled again.

Kaede's eyes widened as she glanced back at Kikyou again, then the monk. "N-N-N-Ne, Inuyasha-sama is still pinned to the tree then?" She looked nervous.

The monk nodded.

"And I just have to ask him what he said to Kikyou-oneesama?"

He nodded again.

"Yosh. I'll do it then," Kaede nodded. "But you have to watch Oneesama."

"Of course," Miyatsu's grin grew.

"Ummmm," Kaede sweated, "Actually, you have to find someone else to do it."

"I wasn't going to do anything-"

"Well you need to watch the village anyway," Kaede interrupted. "Good night!" She pushed him outside.

"O-Oi, where am I supposed to sleep?"

* * *

The sun was high in the sky when Kaede left the hut, her arms were full of smelly herbs and the gravel crunched pleasantly under her feet. She smiled and nodded a few times to people who called in greeting, but otherwise she kept to herself.

She wondered if the seal on Inuyasha would protect him from temperature. Or maybe even certain scents. Probably not. He needed to breathe and unfortunately, scent went with it.

But it would work well for Kaede that Inuyasha had such a sensitive sense of smell.

"Konnichiwaaaaa Inuyasha-samaaaaa!" The small girl smiled up at the one in red. He glowered in return. Miyatsu had been right. Inuyasha _was_ awake.

"What are you doing here, brat? Were you involved in the plot against me too?" Man, his voice was annoying sometimes. And he said the stupidest things.

"I'm not here to listen to you complain Inuyasha-sama, I just want to ask you what you said to Kikyou-oneesama. You hurt her once already and she came back crying last night, saying she wanted to kill you right now. So what'd you do?" That had probably been the most she'd ever said to Inuyasha in her entire life-err well, her entire time knowing him.

"Crying? Kikyou doesn't cry! Don't even pull that on me, or I'll-"

"Talk me to death?" Kaede was un-intimidated.

"You know what? I don't have to tell you anything! You're the sister of that bitch who pinned me to this damn tree and it's hot up here, and boring as hell now that she woke me up with nothing to do I mean, what the hell is she smoking-"

"Shut UP!" Kaede hollered. "Mou, Inuyasha-sama, you talk way too much. Tell me or I'll use these."

She held up the smelly herbs, a convenient breeze sending a small whiff his way. Promptly Inuyasha broke into a sneezing fit, covering his nose, he cried out, "Dammit! You brat, stoppit already!"

"Only if you tell me-"

"Alright, alright! Just put those damn things away! Where the hell did you find those anyway?"

Kaede obeyed and Inuyasha sighed.

"I guess the only real important thing I said was…well I asked her why she didn't just kill me instead of lying to me and leading me on like that."

Kaede blinked. "Lying to _you_?"

The hanyou rolled his eyes. "I know you ain't deaf."

"Man. Oneesama was right. You are a pathetic liar; you split her shoulder in half and wonder why she attacked you?"

"What the hell are you and Kikyou talking about?" Inuyasha exploded. "I didn't do that! I didn't even _touch _Kikyou! Hell, I took the jewel from the shrine and ran- you can ask those villagers I knocked over tryin' to get it!"

"The shrine? Kikyou-oneesama said you stole it from her! You told her you'd be human!"

"I was going to be!" Inuyasha shouted back, then, as if shocked by his own voice, he looked down and away, a pink tinge coming to his cheeks. "The bitch fucking betrayed me."

"You're lying." Kaede squinted at him.

"She shot an arrow at me and shouted, 'Die hanyou!' How the hell was I supposed to take it?" Inuyasha snapped. "If you don't believe me, that's fine, it doesn't matter. In a couple of days when Kikyou gets better, she'll come out and kill me. It'll all be over."

As Kaede watched, Inuyasha's head sunk down, forlornness seemed to creep over him and he looked away. "Is that all you need to know?" he said quietly.

Dazedly, the girl nodded and she turned away, leaving the shady place. Inuyasha watched her back half-heartedly. Someone had better make this make sense.

Kikyou could hear muttering outside the door. "-said he was in the shrine-"

"-thought they saw him sitting in his tree-"

"-shape-shifters-"

"-work it out-" She cooled her face with a wet rag. She was feeling much better now that it was daytime and she couldn't feel his pulse thumping around her wrists, however, thoughts from yesterday still crept in occasionally.

She'd wanted him to die yesterday. But now, now she was feeling very strange. It crept up her stomach and up her throat to her scalp, then descended down her toes, tingling oddly. The feeling would start anytime she though of his face as the arrow pierced him and the jewel fell with a ting. It would swirl around her head like his voice last night.

The emotion in his voice had been…so real…If he hadn't torn her in half, she could have felt…guilty. But no. He was pinned to a tree. She was bed-ridden. He was sealed, she was broken.

It had all been a lie, and in three days time, by which time she should be feeling better, she would finish the job. She didn't want to. She knew this was a lesson from Kami-sama, but…He was her only friend at the very least…And to think that he betrayed her. Kikyou sighed. She was really unlucky.

The screen was suddenly pulled back, and Kikyou winced at the light.

"Kikyou-sama…" the monk looked down at her. "There's something off about both of your stories…"

Kaede inched in behind him, looking back and forth between the two.

"You see, the villagers say they saw you put the jewel in the shrine before the hanyou came and attacked it," Miyatsu looked seriously at her. "And the hanyou…claims to have never touched you."

"Obviously because he doesn't want to be killed," Kikyou shook her head.

"Did Inuyasha-sama seem different than normal?" Kaede piped up.

Kikyou sighed, "I suppose…his youki was more malignant, but I believe that is because he was finally allowing it out."

"Kikyou-sama, you underestimate your abilities to read an aura. Surely, as a prodigy and keeper of the Shikon no Tama, you would have noticed malignant youki much sooner," Miyatsu spoke up.

"He's a hanyou, there are very few of them, I had difficulty reading his aura," Kikyou didn't need to mention that had been part of his allure in the first place.

"This fight has darkened the jewel," Miyatsu gestured to the podium, where indeed, the jewel seemed to be covered in dust, the gleam a bit harder to see. "I believe this is the work of a shape-shifting youkai."

"The villagers are mistaken, I simply wasn't in the village, this is not the work of a youkai," Kikyou disagreed.

"Inuyasha-sama said you fired an arrow at him and called him hanyou," Kaede piped up.

Kikyou's eyes widened and she turned to look at Kaede. "I never said that…I told him I would call him by his name."

"Onigumo!" The older two turned to look at the girl.

"Remember Oneesama?! I told you he wanted it to be corrupted, and …and something was strange about the cave when I visited," she stood up. "Come on Miyatsu-sama…I will show you where Onigumo was lying."

There was a rustle as Kikyou rose to her feet, grabbing her bow from the corner of the hut. The other two both looked up, Kaede with worry and Miyatsu with grave understanding.

"I must see this for myself."

Had she truly made a mistake? Had this been the work of some terrible youkai? Had she sealed Inuyasha for nothing? The pain in Inuyasha's voice continued to reverberate in her ears.

* * *

A rampant wind blew out near Onigumo's cave; it tossed the grass to and fro and made it difficult for Kikyou to see, but did nothing to blow away the clouds overhead. They coated the sky with a layer of gray, and at the base they had begun to shimmer and shake, roiling like some abominable stew.

The air had an acrid scent that clung to the nostrils, Kikyou wondered if Kaede had been kidding when she said the cave seemed a little strange. It was swimming in youki, something that even a normal person should be able to sense, something that should have come as easy as breathing to someone like Kaede.

Miyatsu and Kikyou exchanged a look. Yes, it was obvious that something was or had been here. Youki waves increased in intensity as they approached the cave. The rock was charred, and had collapsed in slightly on itself, dust still permeated the air.

Miyatsu was the first to enter, he coughed and backed out rather quickly in a flourish of robes. "We shouldn't go in there, the youki is nearly blinding, and I don't see this Onigumo person," he looked back at the two girls.

"Are you sure? He's probably lying down…he doesn't have any legs, they got…well they aren't there," said Kaede quickly.

The monk shook his head. "There's nothing in there, and if there was, it's gone now. This may seem out of sorts…but I believe that Onigumo may have been killed by youkai, perhaps even by the youkai which staged this whole thing,"

Kikyou looked over the cave, her eyes embedding the image into the back of her skull, guilt seeping through her. Onigumo had been killed by youkai while she had been selfishly asking Inuyasha to become human with her and get rid of her responsibility to the Shikon no Tama and the village forever.

She looked away.

"Kikyou-sama?"

"Let's go," she spoke quietly, her back turned to them.

"Oneesama, what about Inuyasha-sama, do you think-"

"I no longer know what I think. However, I do know that I have a responsibility to the village, and Inuyasha admitted to stealing the jewel. I will not let him free."

"Demo Oneesama-"

"Hush, Kaede!" Kikyou swiveled to face her. "I would kill him now, but my conscience can't live with it knowing he may be innocent of this matter."

A strong gust of wind blew across Kaede's astonished face, and Kikyou glared off in the direction of the wind. "A youkai draws near."

* * *

This is the longest I've ever written in one sitting, so I'm going to probably need some concrit. Tell me whatchya think! Hope it didn't disappoint.


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